Cutting surfaces available in a household or commercial kitchen have a number of known deficiencies which limit their use in food preparation. Plastic, Formica, and wood kitchen counter tops may be damaged or marred by preparing food on their surfaces. Ceramic and metal counter tops may dull the cutting knife or other utensil and may also be damaged. Accordingly, most household and commercial kitchens utilize separate or individual cutting boards for preparing food products. These cutting boards, however, also have a number of deficiencies.
Wood and rigid plastic cutting boards are well known in the art. Wood cutting boards typically utilize a ginkgo, willow, or hinoki (white cedar) wood material. The plastic or synthetic cutting boards typically utilize a nitrile butadiene rubber (NBR) or a polyethylene butadiene rubber material. Some of the drawbacks to wood and plastic cutting boards are that they can be hard to clean, can stain, can retain odors, and are too heavy or too large. Also, wood and plastic have sufficient porosity such that the knife or other utensil can form small grooves and cuts within the cutting board.
This porosity and these cuts can harbor bacteria which is likely to breed and propagate. Typically, organisms such as enteric bacteria, i.e., Enterobacteriaceae, such as Salmonella and E. coli, and Gram positive organisms, such as Staphylococcus and Streptococcus, are the organisms that can be found in cutting boards. These organisms are transferred to the cutting boards by the food product itself or the liquid juices produced from the food product.
These microorganisms are generally present in the colon, intestines, or fecal matter of humans or animals. When food products such as poultry, red meat, seafood, eggs, or any foods which contain these products come into contact with fecal matter during handling or processing, the potential exists for contamination and subsequent transfer of these organisms to the end users or consumers, i.e., humans.
Not only can the presence of sufficient numbers of microorganisms cause the deterioration of a food product such as by causing spoilage, additionally, if consumed by a human or animal, can also cause disease. In the United States alone, the number of cases of food poisoning associated with the consumption of contaminated food products is conservatively estimated to be in the multimillions per year. While most human cases of bacterial food poisoning only result in acute symptomatic disease, which includes nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, chills, fever, and exhaustion; for those individuals such as infants, the elderly, pregnant women, neonates, and those with immunocompromised systems, death can occur.
The total economic loss attributable to bacterial food poisoning has been estimated to reach into the hundreds of millions of dollars each year due to lost productivity, increased use of the medical insurance system, and increased use of the medical provider system.
Some recent recommendations as to reducing the possibility of bacterial contamination are to continuously disinfect the cutting board or only prepare the bacterial causing food after other food has been prepared. These procedures are not completely effective and can be substantially time consuming. In addition, few people either know how to adequately sanitize their cutting boards, or take the time to do it.
A number of additional solutions have been contemplated by the prior art. One such solution is to have a number of plastic layers or resin coated wood strips stacked and mounted to each other to form a large thick cutting board. When the top layer or strip of material is no longer useable, the user simply peals or pries this layer off to expose the second layer or strip. French patent no. 2,646,766 and Japanese patent no. 5-64617 are typical of this type of prior art design. U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,416 discloses another prior art design which includes a cutting board having an organic polymer layer containing an antibacterial zeolite. The bacteria are killed when it comes into contact with the antibacterial zeolite. These cutting boards, however, can be difficult and costly to manufacture as well as inconvenient for the user. Consumers may also have an aversion to bringing food items into contact with antibacterial agents. Further, none of the contemplated prior art designs include a portion of the cutting board which is designed to contain pathogenic juices or is moveable to create a transportable serving tray.